Exxon Mobil CEO Tillerson gets 10% raise

SteveGelsi

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rex W. Tillerson will receive a 10% base salary increase of $187,000 to $2.06 million in 2009 plus 225,000 shares of restricted stock, according to a filing with regulators.

The salary boost just about matches the profit increase of 11% that Wall Street analysts expect for the oil giant's 2008 profit, now pegged at just over $46 billion, according to a survey by FactSet Research. In 2009, analysts expect Exxon Mobil's annual earnings to fall by about $8 billion to $34 billion as the energy boom turned to bust.

On the heels of triple-digit oil prices this year, Exxon Mobil's
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Compensation Committee on Nov. 25 established a ceiling of $232 million for 2008 bonuses to executives at the world's largest corporation by market cap of nearly $400 billion.

Tillerson, who turned 56 this year, gets a 1.7% share of the total bonus pie, worth up to $4 million, if conditions are met under the oil giant's "short-term incentive program."

Tillerson's 225,000 restricted shares, which carry a value of $17.5 million based on Tuesday's closing price, come with a 10-year lock up. During the restricted period, Tillerson will retain the right to receive dividends and vote the shares. Last year, Tillerson received 185,000 restricted shares.

Riding record profits on the historic run-up in record oil prices this year, Exxon Mobil Corp.'s third-quarter net income rose 58% to a new record of nearly $15 billion, the energy giant said Oct. 30.

With oil prices now retreating well below $50 a barrel, however, the period marked a high point in Big Oil profits in the months leading up to and immediately after the record price of more than $147 a barrel in early July. See full story.

The record profits did little to prevent a big dip in Exxon Mobil's share price this year.

The stock, which is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
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has retreated to $78 a share now from just under $94 a share at the start of January, a loss of 17%.

Seeking to weave benchmarks into Tillerson's 2009 pay, the company's short-term incentive program awards half of Tillerson's $4 million bonus in cash by year-end. The remaining 50% will be paid after three years through the use of earnings bonus units, which are subject to recoupment in the event of a material negative restatement of results.

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